Atkins is starting because he is effective. Bynum could start but there is not enough ball for him and Stuckey to play together.

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i disagree with that. when we were winning, there were long
stretches with Bynum, Stuckey AND BG on the floor and it worked. I think Bynum is coming off the bench because a)he's still not healthy enough to play starter minutes, and b)if he started we wouldn't have any real scoring off the bench.

Every time I watch a Pistons game, I can't get over what seems to be Stuckey's lack of general basketball IQ. That lack of IQ leads to a lack of passing, and the self reliance that leads to bad shots and predictable behavior. He thinks he is "the man".

Someone said earlier in this thread "He's not CB..."... well, in my opinion he is exhibiting some of the same behavior that made me not all that upset to see Chauncey leave when he did (poor decision making, trying to carry the load...).

It is really very simple: If a PG considers himself the primary scoring option, then they are no longer a point guard, they are a SG, and there should be someone passing the ball to them.

And it may be true he is having his "best" season. But I honestly don't see much improvement in his decision making from where he was when he was a rookie. And if you question his ability to make decisions, then how can you trust him to run the offense?

Flat out, I just don't see the guy being a coach on the floor, or a floor general... insert your PG cliche here.

I say at best, he would be a great 1st guard off the bench as a change of pace. That said, we are then stuck with 3 SG's and Bynum and Atkins... ... pray Joe doesn't screw up his next draft pick... although at the beginning of the year, I had imagined him drafting a big man or two in the 2010 draft... maybe we'll just get 3 more SF's.

Every time I watch a Pistons game, I can't get over what seems to be Stuckey's lack of general basketball IQ. That lack of IQ leads to a lack of passing, and the self reliance that leads to bad shots and predictable behavior. He thinks he is "the man".

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I have not seen evidence of this with a healthy lineup. In fact, he seems to defer to a fault with Rip, Tayshaun, and BG in the lineup.

It is really very simple: If a PG considers himself the primary scoring option, then they are no longer a point guard, they are a SG, and there should be someone passing the ball to them.

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I guess Chris Paul is SG. Isiah was a SG. Tony Parker is a SG. These guys are/were the goto scorers on their teams. Parker and Isiah won titles as the primary scoring options on their teams.

I think the point is, Rodney HAS been the primary scoring option for most of this year (Largely at the SG spot!!). For much of the season we've had about 55ppg out of the lineup. He was starting next to Chucky Atkins, Jerebko, Maxiell, and Ben Wallace. Who do you think is going to take the majority of the shots? Should he be trying to get Chucky off? No, because even Rodney having to force the issue at times was our best option. And it won games to the tune of 5-straight until the guys remaining ran out of gas.

He is definitely not the perfect point guard, but I really think that is far from our biggest concern at the moment. Address the Frontline, get rid of the old regime, and then we'll see if Rodney needs to be moved off-the-ball on a more often.

I guess Chris Paul is SG. Isiah was a SG. Tony Parker is a SG. These guys are/were the goto scorers on their teams. Parker and Isiah won titles as the primary scoring options on their teams.

I think the point is, Rodney HAS been the primary scoring option for most of this year (Largely at the SG spot!!). For much of the season we've had about 55ppg out of the lineup. He was starting next to Chucky Atkins, Jerebko, Maxiell, and Ben Wallace. Who do you think is going to take the majority of the shots? Should he be trying to get Chucky off? No, because even Rodney having to force the issue at times was our best option. And it won games to the tune of 5-straight until the guys remaining ran out of gas.

He is definitely not the perfect point guard, but I really think that is far from our biggest concern at the moment. Address the Frontline, get rid of the old regime, and then we'll see if Rodney needs to be moved off-the-ball on a more often.

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Seriously? Those comparisons are a bit of a stretch. Isiah averaged almost 10 assists per game for his entire career. Chris Paul has been over 10 APG. Parker's only at 5.8 for his career (not really one of my favorite players anyway), but Stuckey is around 4. When Stuckey gets somewhere near double digits, then I would be fine with comparing him to premier players and hall of famers.

And perhaps the reason that people have an issue is that he is/was touted as the PG of the future. And as the numbers show, he doesn't have much of a inclination to give the ball up. And if he did in fact defer to the vets too much, it seems his numbers would reflect that.

I just can't get over the feeling in the pit of my stomach that the guy is fool's gold.

He is definitely not the perfect point guard, but I really think that is far from our biggest concern at the moment. Address the Frontline, get rid of the old regime, and then we'll see if Rodney needs to be moved off-the-ball on a more often.

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Maybe one happens while doing the other. Move one vet for a PG, another for Cap Space (that we spend on a frontcourt player) and draft a frontcourt player that can play....and BAM, we're in business.

And perhaps the reason that people have an issue is that he is/was touted as the PG of the future.

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Exact-a-mondo!!!! Joe tried to convince us, and himself for that matter, that-that duck is really a goose. We were told he's going to be an all-star PG, so folks are anticipating his PG game to just magically appear, AIN'T HAPPNEN'!! He has suspect handles (for a PG, decent for a SG), and ZERO court awareness, which means his decision making is always going to HORRIBLE! I just wish we'd get a real PG, because right now he's being set up to fail.

I have not seen evidence of this with a healthy lineup. In fact, he seems to defer to a fault with Rip, Tayshaun, and BG in the lineup.

He is definitely not the perfect point guard, but I really think that is far from our biggest concern at the moment. Address the Frontline, get rid of the old regime, and then we'll see if Rodney needs to be moved off-the-ball on a more often.

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Sounds about right... when he was the only one doing the scoring he was labeled a "scorer only"... now that he's passing the ball not forcing as much inside "he's playing too passively".
I'm tellin ya he is looking for his teamates and he IS finding the open man... it's their job to convert...
Also seeing more drive and kicks...
how about the multiple injuries he's experiencing... give the kid a friggin' break... for real.

Sounds about right... when he was the only one doing the scoring he was labeled a "scorer only"... now that he's passing the ball not forcing as much inside "he's playing too passively".
I'm tellin ya he is looking for his teamates and he IS finding the open man... it's their job to convert...
Also seeing more drive and kicks...
how about the multiple injuries he's experiencing... give the kid a friggin' break... for real.

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Yeah, billups was bailed out by good teammates; Stuckey is lonely gunman so far. And I dislike that "pass to bigs maybe they create something..." C'mon, those so called bigs - Kwame, Maxiell and Wilcox are benchplayers by skill - they need to be bailed out not vice versa.

To those who moan "but true PG..." rule no1: you cannot create something from nothing. ( the only exception is big bang, of course)

Yeah, billups was bailed out by good teammates; Stuckey is lonely gunman so far.

To those who moan "but true PG..." rule no1: you cannot create something from nothing. ( the only exception is big bang, of course)

And Stuckey is not big bang.

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1) The Big Bang wasn't from nothing. The universe was contracted into a small volume of zero space before it exploded (or that was the current theory). Since space didn't exist, neither did time. Therefore, the big bang was the beginning of the universe that came from something.

2) You say that Billups was bailed out by good teammates - those wouldn't have been Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, and Richard Hamilton, would they?

I don't consider Cv (at least when healthy, and strictly from an offensive standpoint) and Ben Gordon...Nothing. So I respectfully disagree.

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With all due respect really I mean who made you the authority of pt. guards. It seems to me and it's in my most humblest opinion in that i'm not an "expert" like most of you on the forum that we rank close to last on offense simply because we are just not making shots. Our bigs do not consistently finish around the basket and as a team we cant make a jumpshot to save our life. We are next to last in assists because WE CANNOT SHOOT, like a poster stated above you cannot make something out of nothing. When we start making some shots you will see him trust his teamates more and his/our assists climb. Until then everything will remain the same. Just a humble opinion from a novice thank you.

Can someone let me know the next time Stuckey gets the ball and doesn't 1.) Fake a 2 handed pass over the defenders head followed by 2.) Go in a straight line as fast as he can directly into said defenders chest?

One thing I've realized with him is when there's little time left, regardless if there's been a play called or not, he loves to just keep the ball in hand, and run the clock down to a point where he has to be the play maker. He needs to learn how to give up the ball and produce for other players. If you look at it in a way, if Rodney wants to take over the offense and do everything, that makes the whole team much easier to guard. Another thing is he's not scoring like he did his first year and last year. He doesn't make as many layups, and doesn't get many foul calls. If he were scoring it would be a different thing but every time he touches the ball I begin to hope that he gets trapped and is forced to pass it or a miracle strikes and he scores.

With all due respect really I mean who made you the authority of pt. guards. It seems to me and it's in my most humblest opinion in that i'm not an "expert" like most of you on the forum that we rank close to last on offense simply because we are just not making shots. Our bigs do not consistently finish around the basket and as a team we cant make a jumpshot to save our life. We are next to last in assists because WE CANNOT SHOOT, like a poster stated above you cannot make something out of nothing. When we start making some shots you will see him trust his teamates more and his/our assists climb. Until then everything will remain the same. Just a humble opinion from a novice thank you.

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It's true that the Pistons are not a great shooting team, and that is related to assists. In the NBA right now there's a .624 correlation between team assists and team field goals per game, and .711 correlation between field goal percentage and team assists per game - there's a very clear association between the three stats. So let's do another simple calculation - assists per field goal.

As you can see, Detroit is second to last in Assists per field goal. Now, if they were just a poor shooting team, then you would expect this to be higher - especially since the easy buckets resulting from good passes compared to the forced and guarded jumpers that the team shoots a lot of would skew this much higher. But they are also a poor distributing team, as anyone that watches a typical game can see. There is way too much one-on-one basketball, because the offense is stagnant. This might change as the players get used to each other, but right now, they lack distribution. It's not simply an issue of bad shooting - even when they make a shot it's less likely the result of an assist than it is on almost any other team in the NBA.

Interesting little result - I ran a correlation between A/FG and win%, and it's .511 right now, which indicates a pretty strong association between the two.